But, if you choose not to go to law school, what else are you
really going to do with your life?

Above The Law's David Lat
explores that question after reading parts of Professor Paul
Campos' new book Don't Go To Law School (Unless).

In the book, an unnamed law student writes:

[Prospective law students] think: debt doesn’t matter. There is
no penalty for defaulting on the debt, except the relinquishment
of the privileges of an advanced financial life. . . Students
evaluating the horrible deal in question believe they have no
access anyway to those privileges (e.g. a retirement account, a
home purchase, a start-up business). For the student in question,
all law school has to do is provide some potential
benefit, and it becomes a rational choice.

And while Campos tries to refute the notion that some potential
benefit outweighs all of the depressing statistics, Lat takes a
different view.

"After all, what else are you going to do with yourself? Before
you criticize law schools and those who matriculate at them,
please familiarize yourself with the grim economic realities of
twenty-first century America…." Lat writes for ATL.

He argues that overall unemployment in the country for people
under 25 could be as high as 54 percent, and even business school
isn't a safe option anymore as MBA students struggle to find a
job.

And if you decide to go out into the world with just a liberal
arts undergrad degree, you're essentially resigning yourself to a
life of low pay and a dismal job market.

"In light of the diminishing career opportunities for, well,
almost everyone — everyone from unskilled labor to graduates of
professional schools, including B-school — is it really
that irrational to go to law school?" Lat asks.

While we have often written about the financial perils of
attending law school, Lat does seem to have a point.

The job market is terrible everywhere, but there is always a
chance the legal industry could recover. So why not roll the dice
and go to law school if it's what you really want to do?